Incubator.



No. 673,89L Patented May I4, |90|.

J. D. ABRAM.

INCUBATOR.

(Application led Mar. 8, 1900.)

(H0 Model.)

W/TNESSES.'

j e a Arron/ver.

rre 'STATES Arnim Cerise.

JOI-IN D. ABRAM, OF TEKAMAII, NEBRASKA.

INCUBATOR.

SPECIFICATION Vforming part of Letters Patent N o. 673,891, dated May 14, 1901. Application filed March 6, 1900. Serial No. 7,529. lNo model.)

T0 all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN D. ABRAM, a citi zen of the United States, residing at Tekamah, in the county of Burt and State of Nebraska, have invented a new and useful Incubator, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to incubatore in which, speciiically, the egg-chamber is heated by a hot-water radiator or tank and has an independent source of ventilation and moisture regulation.

The objects of the invention herein set forth are, first, to provide better temperature regulation; second, to improve the means of moisture regulation set forth and described in my pending application, tiled July 17, 1899, Serial No. 724,212; third,to provide more convenient means for handling thermometers and watching the temperature in the egg-chamber, and, fourth, among other minor objects more fully hereinafter set forth, to provide a heat-regulator easily taken down and reassembled for purposes of shipment.

To attain the objects above mentioned, I have constructed the mechanism illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a View of one end of the incubator, parts of the casings being cut away to show the interior arrangement and construction. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section on the broken line a of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective View of the support for the radiatorand thermometers; and Fig. 4 is an under side enlarged View of a part of the heat-regulator, in all of which the same numerals refe to like parts.

I have constructed the inclosing casing of my incubator with double side walls, between which is the dead-air space 46, and a double bottom or floor having a like dead-air space 47, the whole supported at the desired height by legs 48 and a top 45 covering all, a door 50 at the front in the outer thickness of the casing and a corresponding glass door in the inner thickness in the usual manner giving access to the egg-chamber.

Filling the entire upper part of the inclosure is the hot-water tank or radiator 41, having the llingtube 51 and draw-olf cock 52.

Seated on the shelf 49 on one outer end of the casing is the lamp 43, having a vertical flue 23 passing upward through the satu rating-chamber 39 of the moisture-regulator and terminating in an open end 23 a little below the top of the casing. At a point midway the height of the radiator 41 the flue 23' has a horizontal branch 25, extending into and along the frontin the radiator to near its opposite end, a continuation 27 toward the back, and a return 26 along the back, out at the end, and terminating in an upturned open end 24, level with the end 23, thus forming a loop through the water in the radiator 41.

A sheet-metal pocket 2O projects horizontally into the end of the radiator about midway between the horizontal line ends 25 and 26 and is adapted to receive loosely, but closely, the thermo-bulb 19, having at its outer end acontracted trapped portion 18 and a vertical cylinder part 16, opening upward with a trumpet-shaped mouth. The bulb 19 is of length to till the pocket 20 and project through the incubator walls or casing, the trap 18 and vertical cylinder 16 having a separate inclosing case 21, with one side hinged to swing down and allow the bulb to be withdrawn from the pocket. A portion of the top 45 branches over and forms the top of the case 21 and has an open end slot 22 parallel with the pocket and bulb to receive loosely the piston-rod 10.

The piston 17 disposed in the cylinder 16, the piston-rod 10 projects upward through the top 45, the upper end threaded to carry the cylindrical nut 11, having an annular groove engaged in the slot 56 of the yoke l2, which yoke is made of a sheet of metal having the edges 58 and 59 bent downward and parts 57 57 at the ends of the edge 58 sharpened to seat in the fulcrum 60. The slot 56 is enlarged at one end to allow the passage of the nut 11, and the downward-bent edge portions of the yoke are perforated to receive rmly beneath the body of the yoke 12 the beam 14, carrying the counterpoise 13 and at its ends the disks 15 and 15, set to close the flue-openings 24 and 23.

I support the center of the bottom of the radiator by a channel iron or beam 30, eX- tending from back to front at the top of the egg-chamber, the lower edges of the flanges IOC of the channel being bent toward each other, thus forming a rectangular tube with a narrow slit along the bottom from end to end.

The thermometer-hanger 32 has a vertical cylindrical head 29, adapted to loosely turn and slide back and forward in the slotted tube 30. The thermometer-indicator plate 33 is centrally pivoted near the lower end of the hanger 32 to oscillate in a vertical plane, its lower edge bent to form the lip 54 to impinge the beveled end 55 of the hanger and limit the oscillation of the indicator-plate, as shown in Fig. 3.

42 is a fresh-air duct to the saturatingchamber 39, containing the evaporating-pan 40. The moist-air duct 35 36 leads to the condensing chamber or duct 37, which to insulate I have disposed in the dead-air space 47 in the bottom of the incubator through to the opposite end, where it is provided with the perforated cold-air damper and condensedwater drip 53. The moist-air distributers 38 and 38 consist of inverted channels disposed diagonally on the floor of the incubator connected with openings in the top of the condensing chamber or duct 37 and terminating near the end of the egg-chamber adjacent to the saturating-chamber and lamp. The eX- haust or ventilation openings 3l and 3l are placed at the opposite end of the egg-chamber and as high up as possible, as shown. The condensing chamber or duct 37 is flattened and widened, as shown, to adapt it to the space 47 and to give a closer and broader surface of contact between the upper strata of Warm saturated air from the saturatingchamber and the lower strata of cold dryer air admitted at the damper 53 to facilitate the required condensation to correct the oversaturated air.

In assembling and operation the bulb 19 is filled with alcohol, the trap 18 with mercury, and the piston 17 inserted in the cylinder 16. The bulb is then slid into the pocket 20, the piston-rod passing into the open-ended slot 22, and the hinged front of the casing 21 closed. The yoke 12 is then slipped over to engage the annular groove in the nut 11 and seated in the'fulcrum 60 and the counterpoise 13 moved along the beam 14 until it is balanced, and the disk 15 rests on and covers the top 23 of the vertical lamp-flue. The lamp is then lighted, and the hot air and fluids of combustion pass through pipes 25, 27, and 26, escaping at 24, and thus heat the water in the radiator 41. By adjusting the height of the piston in the cylinder by the nut 11 when the required degree of heat is reached in the radiator the mercury will force the piston up, closing the outlet 24 and opening the outlet 23, thus cutting off the supply of heat to the radiator and preventing a back draft of cold air, which occurs through the pipes 24, 26, 27, and 25, when both outlets 23 and 24 are open, soon carrying away the heat of the water in the radiator; but when the desired temperature is attained and the regulator assumes the position shown in Fig. 1 the incubator will with favorable conditions show only a Very small fall of temperature if the lamp is extinguished for several hours, and if a supply of moisture is required through the moisture-regulator the small amount of heat thus added further retards the cooling down of the egg-chamber. Itis obvious that falling of the temperature in the radiator will produce reverse action of the regulator to retain the required degree of heat.

The locating of the thermo-bulb in the radiator prevents raising the temperature of the radiator above that required in the eggchamber below before the regulator acts, as is the case where the bulb or thermostat is located in the chamber or remote from the immediate source of heat, allowing an overheating of the radiator and subsequent overheatingof the egg-chamber. By the contrivance and arrangement here disclosed the temperature of the egg-chamber is gradually and positively reached and never overheated.

By the down ward-extending fresh-air pipe 42, away from and extending below the lamp,

RI get a purer air, uncontaminated by any smoke or odor from the body or burner of the lamp, and facilitate the circulation by bringing the fresh-air inlet farther below the ventilation-outlets 31 3l.

The arrows in Figs. 1 and 2 indicate the movement of the fresh air through the evaporating-chamber 39, where it is warmed and laden with moisture evaporated from the open water-pan 40 by the heat from the lampchimney 23 and 23 and also shows the movement of the corrected moist air through the "distributers and egg-chamber.

The disposition of the condensing-chainber 37 in the dead-air space between the inner and outer bottom gives the walls of said chamber thorough protection and insulation, its radiating heat contributing to the warmth of said space, and places it entirely out of the way.

Two or more thermometers and hangers may be inserted in the egg-chamber, and as they are not held rigidly no harm occurs to the eggs in removing or replacing the eggtray and the thermometers remain in the chamber, sothat their reading is not changed by exposure at time of turning or testing the i eggs.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an incubator the combination of an egg-chamber, a radiator in said egg-chamber and outside of said egg-chamber, an airsaturating chamber inclosing a water-pan and having an outlet into a condensing-chamber having a cold-air inlet and condensedwater outlet, and an outlet communicating with said egg-chamber, and a heater-flue disposed through said air-saturating chamber and through said radiator.

2. The combination of an incubator egg- IOO IZO

chamber, a hot-water radiator in said eggchamber and having therein a pocket, and a heat-supplj7 regulated by a thermostat disposed in the pocket in said hot-water radiator.

3. The combination of an incubation eggchamber, a hot-Water radiator in said eggchamber, a water-pan inclosed in a supplemental chamber outside of said egg-chamber and having a fresh-air inlet and an outlet leading to said egg-chamber, and a lampfiue disposed through said outside supplemental chamber and through said hot-Water radiator.

4. The combination of an incubation eggchamber and a hot-water radiator therein, a supplemental chamber to inclose a waterpan and having a fresh-air inlet, and an outlet leading to said egg-chamber; a lamp-flue disposed through said supplemental chamber and terminated with a valved outlet, a branch from said lamp-flue disposed through said hot-water radiator and having avalved terminal outlet, and a thermostat connected to simultaneously open one and close the other valved outlet.

5. A support for incubator-thermometers, comprising a longitudinally-slotted tube and athermometer-hauger having a head adapted to revolve and slide in said slotted tube.

An incubator having in combination a radiator supported above the egg-chamber by ahorizontal longitudinally-slotted tube, a vertical hanger having'a head slidable and revoluble in said slotted tube, and a thermometer pivoted to the hanger to oscillate vertically.

7. An incubator having in combination a radiator supported above the egg-cham ber by a tube slotted to engage slidahly the head of a revoluble hanger, carrying a verticallyoscillating thermometer, the indicator-plate of which has a lip at its lower edge to impinge the lower end of the hanger and limit the oscillation.

8. An incubator havingin combination an egg-chamber, an air-saturating chamber to 1 inclose a lamp-due and a water-pan, and in communication therewith acondensing-chamber disposed through the dead-air space of the incubator-bottom, said condensing-chamber having an adjustable opening to admit cold air and draw off condensed water, and having at its top outlets communicating with said egg-chamber.

9. An incubator having in combination an egg-chamber, a water-pan and a lamp-tine inclosed in an air-saturating chamber having a fresh-air-inlet tube remote from and projecting below the lamp; and in intermediate commu nication with said saturating-chamber an d the egg-chamber, a condensing-chamber disposed through the dead-air space of the iucubatorbottom and having an adjustable cold-air inlet and water-outlet.

l0. An incubator comprising the combination of an egg-chamber, a hot-water radiator iu said egg-chamber, a heater-Hue disposed through said hot-water radiator, an escapeoutlet from said heater-flue at its entrance to said radiator, and an escape-outlet at its exit from said radiator, and dampers connected to close either outlet and simultaneously open the other outlet.

ll. An incubator comprising the combination of an egg-chamber, a hot-Water radiator in said egg-chamber, a heater-flue having two separated escape-outlets, said flue between said outlets being disposed through said hotwater radiator, and a thermostat connected to actuate dampers to open either outlet and simultaneously close the other outlet.

l2. In an incubator the combination of an egg-chamber, a hot-water radiatorin said eggchamber, a primary heat-flue having a dampered outlet and a branch fl ue leading through said hot-water radiator to another dampered outlet, a thermostat disposed in a pocket pro` jectiug into said hot-Water radiator and connected to actuate Ysaid dam pers to close either outlet and simultaneously open the other outlet.

JOHN D. ABRAM.

Witnesses:

C. C. DENNY, A. M. CORBIN, .I r. 

